THE IDEALISM OF THE JAPANESE 507 



1904, entitled " The Soul of a Nation," we find the following de- 

 scription of the religious force which the Japanese call " Bushido " 

 and which constitutes the backbone of the nation, the matter 

 which cements the framework of society : 



" If we cannot adequately express all that ' Bushido ' is, we can say 

 what it is not. Take the average scheme of hfe of the average society 

 of the West ; ' Bushido,' as nearly as may be, represents its exact anti- 

 thesis. ' Bushido ' ofiers us the ideal of poverty instead of wealth, humihty 

 in place of ostentation, reserve instead of reclame, self-sacrifice in place 

 of selfishness, the care of the interest of the State rather than that of the 

 individual. ' Bushido ' inspires ardent courage and the refusal to turn 

 the back upon the enemy ; it looks death calmly in the face, and prefers 

 it to ignominy of any kind. It preaches submission to authority, and the 

 sacrifice of all private interests, whether of self or family, to the common 

 weal. It requires its disciples to submit to a strict physical and mental 

 discipline, develops a martial spirit, and by lauding the virtues of con- 

 stancy, courage, fortitude, faithfulness, daring, and self-restraint, offers 

 an exalted code of moral principles, not only for the man and the warrior, 

 but for men and women in times both of peace and of war." 



It is evident that we have here all the essentials of a reHgion, 

 of a suprasocial and supra-rational force, which binds men 

 together, and which exalts the individual by setting before him 

 an ideal which governs his whole life and his every action, which, 

 in a word, transcends himself. For it is not rationalism which 

 can lead the individual to subordinate himself to the race. On 

 the contrary, the hyperexaltation of the individual reason which 

 rationalism implies must lead to a corresponding hj^erexaltation 

 of the individual as the measure of all things ; and we see this 

 to be really the case in Western civilisation to-day, where society 

 is menaced with disintegration as a result of the excess of indi- 

 viduaUsm. Let us consider some further results of " Bushido." 



" Thirty-seven years ago Japan was a military empire, and the ruling 

 class was that of the ' Samurai.' If they consented to the loss of many 

 cherished rights when the modem revival of the nation began, and their 

 consent was in itself a splendid practical illustration of ' Bushido,' they 

 surrendered nothing of their tenets, and, while remaining essentially a 

 warrior caste, spread abroad among aU ranks of the people the code of 

 ethics which had won for them their distinguished position in the past. 



